1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to techniques for associating a call appearance with data associated with the call, and more specifically, to such techniques wherein the association of the call appearance with the data is based upon matching of non-dialed number identification service (DNIS) call identification data.
2. Background Information
Systems for managing and routing calls through public and/or private communications networks are known in the art. Conventional automatic call distribution (ACD) systems route calls to agents in telemarketing and service inquiry centers, and provide limited real-time call management and reporting capabilities. A typical ACD system will monitor the status of the agent and, when an incoming call is received, selects the agent to handle a particular service request. Reporting and performance data from the agents are also generated by the ACD.
One particular type of scheme for distributing calls to agents is disclosed in Frauenthal et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,983. According to Frauenthal et al., data representing the present call congestion of each of the ACD systems is accumulated in a data base. Using the data in the data base, the percentage of calls made to the ACD systems, as a group, is determined. The information is then used to generate call routing information. When a new call is made to the central office, the routing information is queried to determine which of the ACD systems is to receive the call, so as to balance the call traffic load across the ACD systems.
Another call management and distribution scheme is provided in Gechter et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,535. This patent discloses a system for automatically distributing telephone calls placed over a network to one of a plurality of agent stations connected to the network via service interfaces, and providing status messages to the network. Gechter et al.""s disclosed system includes means for receiving the agent status messages and call arrival messages from the network, which means are connected via a network service interface to the network. Routing means responsive to the receiving means is provided for generating a routing signal provided to the network to connect the incoming call to an agent station through the network. In the system disclosed in Gechter et al., when an incoming call is made to the call router, it decides which agent station should receive the call, establishes a call with that agent station, and then transfers the original call onto the second call to connect the incoming caller directly to the agent station and then drops out of the connection (See, Gechter et al., column 11, lines 45-51).
Other prior art call management, routing, and distribution techniques are disclosed in Andrews et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,130, which is assigned to the assignee of the subject application. This patent discloses a communications system and method for automatically making telephone routing decisions with global authority based upon information gathered in real time from the entire communications system and global optimization criteria. The entirety of the disclosure of the Andrews et al. patent is incorporated herein by reference.
Conventional communications systems of the type disclosed in the aforesaid Andrews et al. patent typically comprise one or more ACD systems connected to each other via at least one public switched telephone network (PSTN). The ACD systems and the PSTN may be controlled by a central controller so as to route calls to and from agents (and/or caller services, such as interactive voice response units) associated with such systems, and callers external thereto, through the ACD systems and PSTN.
The agents associated with such conventional ACD systems typically are provided with respective agent computer-telephony integration (CTI) workstations. Calls received by an ACD system may be routed by the ACD system to the workstations for receipt and processing by the agents using their respective workstations. The ACD system may receive from the PSTN information related to a received call, such as, information identifying the caller and/or calling device telephone number, and may store information related to previous agent-caller transactions; the ACD system may provide this information (hereinafter termed xe2x80x9ccall-context informationxe2x80x9d), during the call, to an agent to which the call is routed. The agent may access the call-context information to better enable the agent to process the call. The ACD system may provide call processing intelligence that permits multiple call appearances at the agent workstation to be properly and meaningfully associated (e.g., based upon dialed number identification service (DNIS) data) with the calls"" respective call-context information.
Conventional ACD systems typically also implement certain xe2x80x9cpost-routingxe2x80x9d call processing features. A call may be considered to undergo xe2x80x9cpost-routingxe2x80x9d processing when, e.g., after the call has already been initially routed to an initial destination device (e.g., a first agent workstation), the same call is again processed such that another destination device (e.g., another agent workstation) becomes involved in the call. Examples of conventional xe2x80x9cpost-routingxe2x80x9d call processing features include, e.g., the ability to transfer a call, initially routed to a first destination device, from the first destination device to a second destination device, the ability to conference the calling device and the first and second destination devices, the ability to make a consultative call wherein the initial call is placed into a hold status at the first destination device, and thereafter, a call connection is established between the first and second destination devices, etc. In order to improve call-processing efficiency, when a call that is initially routed to an agent undergoes post-routing that involves another agent, it is desirable to provide to the other agent the call-context information of the initially routed call.
Typically, conventional ACD systems are complex devices that may be costly to acquire and integrate into a conventional communication system; thus, the use of conventional ACD systems in such a communication system inherently increases the cost and complexity of the communication system. Accordingly, it would be desirable to reduce or eliminate the need to use conventional ACD systems in such conventional communication systems, while still providing a mechanism that properly and meaningfully associates appearances of calls at the agent workstations with the calls"" respective call-context information, even when such call appearances result from or are associated with post-routing call processing. It would also be desirable to provide a mechanism that both enables a supervisory agent to access call-context information of a particular call while the call is being processed by a supervised agent, and facilitates the meaningful intervention, in such a novel call processing environment, of the supervisory agent in the processing of the call by a supervised agent.
According to the present invention, techniques are provided for, among other things, associating a call appearance with data associated with the call, that overcome the aforesaid and other disadvantages and drawbacks of the prior art. More specifically, in the present invention, techniques are provided for, among other things, matching/associating the appearance of a call at a computer node (e.g., a CTI agent workstation) with data (e.g., call-context information) associated with the call. In one embodiment of a technique according to the invention, the call appearance and the call-context data of the call are received at the workstation. Prior to being received by the workstation, however, the data is initially transferred to the workstation from a data transmission mechanism (e.g., a CTI data network comprising a CTI control mechanism) external to the workstation. The call-context data may include non-DNIS data (e.g., automatic number identification (ANI) and/or calling line identification (CLID) data) that identifies the call. The workstation may associate the call appearance with its associated call-context data based upon whether the call identification data included in the call-context data matches other call identification data (i.e., of corresponding type) delivered to the workstation with the appearance of the call. The call and the other call identification data may be delivered directly to the workstation via a telephone network (e.g., a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or private telephone network)
The workstation may be a supervisory agent workstation associated with a supervisory agent. The transfer of the call-context information to the supervisory agent workstation may be initiated either by the supervisory agent workstation or by another CTI workstation associated with an agent who is supervised by the supervisory agent. The call appearance may be associated with or implement a consultative call, a conference call, or a call transfer operation (e.g., involving the supervisory agent workstation) that permits the supervisory agent to intervene in a meaningful and appropriate manner in the processing of the call by the supervised agent.
The supervisory and supervised agent workstations may be comprised in the same non-ACD agent system or in separate non-ACD agent systems that are capable of providing ACD-like features. Each such non-ACD system may comprise a plurality of distributed computer processes executing in conventional computer systems networked together via conventional computer networking hardware and software and provisioned with appropriate telephony hardware and software.
Advantageously, by using the techniques of the present invention, it is possible to reduce or eliminate the need to use conventional ACD systems in a communications system, while still providing a mechanism that properly and meaningfully associates appearances of calls at the agent workstations with the callsxe2x80x2 respective call-context information, even when such call appearances result from or are associated with post-routing call processing. Also advantageously, the present invention enables a supervisory agent to access call-context information of a particular call while the call is being processed by a supervised agent, and facilitates the meaningful intervention of the supervisory agent in the processing of the call by a supervised agent. Thus, advantageously, a communication system implemented using the present invention may be more efficient, less expensive and less complex compared to the prior art.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments and methods of use, the present invention is not intended to be limited to these embodiments and methods of use. Rather, the present invention is of broad scope and is intended to be defined as only set forth in the accompanying claims.